$10,000 Matching Fund Drive for Montana Western #31

Mid-Continent Railway Museum Posted on by

Mid-Continent is home to the oldest surviving, and largely unmodified, gas-electric motor car built by the Electro-Motive Corporation, Montana Western #31. For 35 years now its engine has been silent, but with your help #31 will be repaired and returned to operation to once again delight visitors with rides along Mid-Continent’s rail line.

About Montana Western #31

Built in 1925, it was the 30th such car built by EMC. Not a locomotive, but not just a car either, #31 contains a 52-person capacity passenger compartment, a baggage compartment, and an engine compartment housing a 6-cylinder model 106A Winton gasoline engine powering a General Electric main generator which supplies electricity to a traction motor mounted on #31’s front truck.

Montana Western #31 was named a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark in 2002.

American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)

This type of car, sometimes referred to as a doodlebug, was used on branch lines and shortlines when steam passenger trains were not warranted. A self-powered motor car like #31 could be operated by a just a two-person crew, a motorman and conductor.

The 31 was donated to Mid-Continent in 1966. Following a 4-year restoration, it began operations at Mid-Continent in 1972. It continued to operate occasionally until 1987 when the car was removed from service, in need of repairs to its original Winton engine. Since that time it has been a stationary display piece inside Mid-Continent’s Coach Sheds waiting for time and funding to repair its rare Winton engine.

Montana Western #31 provided rides at Mid-Continent in the early 1970s.

The Plan: Return #31 to Operation

Now the time for waiting for repairs is over! Mid-Continent has a plan to put this car back into operating condition so visitors can once again enjoy a ride aboard this historically significant car, but your help is needed to make that happen. Mid-Continent has secured a $10,000 matching grant from one of the museum’s board members for the #31 project. This means your donations will be matched dollar-for-dollar until the $10,000 goal is reached.

beenhere

Update

Donors have successfully matched all of the available $10,000 of matching funds from the grant. Read the update…

Please consider donating now to make your donation go twice as far and help Mid-Continent bring this unique car back to life. Funds received will be used to make repairs to the original Winton engine. Any funds raised in excess of what is needed for the motor repair will be used toward other repairs needed to make the #31 operational once again, including light radiator work and roof repairs.

When complete, plans call to make the Montana Western #31 available for rides during select museum special events. This will give visitors a unique experience that hasn’t been available at Mid-Continent for over three decades.

How to Donate

Donating to the Montana Western #31 project is easy and can be done in just a few minutes.

Donate Online

Donate quickly and securely online with a credit card, debit card, or PayPal account.

Donate Online

Donate by Check

Send a check payable to Mid-Continent Railway Museum to:

PO Box 358
North Freedom, WI 53951

Please write “Montana Western #31” on the check memo line.

Donate by Phone

Donate with a credit or debit card by phone with a call to the Mid-Continent Railway Museum administrative office (Monday-Friday) at 608-522-4261 or toll-free 800-930-1385.

Mid-Continent Railway Museum is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. All donations are tax-exempt. A donation acknowledgment letter will be provided suitable for tax-deduction purposes.

For additional information about making donations, visit the Donations page.

C&NW #1385: Mounting Achievements

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The next item to be mounted to the backhead of the 1385 is the hydrostatic lubricator.  That is merely a complicated name for the device that delivers steam cylinder oil to the valves and pistons as well as to the steam end of the engine’s air compressors.  Steam cylinder oil is specially compounded to mix with and then be carried by the steam to all the internal moving parts.

The lubricator lives in the cab of the engine within reach of the engineer so he or she can keep a constant eye on this vital function.  If the oiling stops the engine will begin to make some really ugly noises in a very short time and if not immediately corrected those noises become quite expensive. 

Once again the 3-D chessboard is set to mock up the placement of several pieces at once and the lubricator is hanging from the chain hoist.  The bracket for the lubricator is mounted using 2 studs and its position is being verified between the try-cocks, throttle and one of the two required water gauge glasses.

A chain hoist is used to hold the lubricator in place during test-fitting.
Placement of the lubricator bracket between the try-cocks and water glass.

Here is the lubricator mounted in its final position showing how it is studded to the boiler.  Our parting shot shows the upper right corner of the backhead and the top of the boiler with the body of the throttle peeking up out of the steam dome area.  The dome was made to be removable to better facilitate maintenance work in the future.

Hydrostatic lubricator installed.
Hydrostatic lubricator with top of boiler and throttle in view.

D&R #9 Work Session Scheduled for July 30, 2022

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Fletch’s crew will be holding an EXCITING volunteer session on the D&R #9 this Saturday, July 30.  If the weather holds, we are hoping to get that first coat of paint on the #9’s tender.  Start time will be 10 AM at the south end of Coach Shed #1.  If the weather changes, or we run into some unforeseen circumstance where we cant paint the tender, we will shift back over to the locomotive and continue to work on the many tasks over there. 

I am sad to report that Fletcher and I will be out of town this weekend, so we won’t be able to attend.  But we will have an able-bodied crew on the ground, led by Steve Pahl.  Hope you can make it.  – Jason Reiman

D&R #9: June 20, 2022 Volunteer Session Report

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Fletch and his crew got together on a Very Hot day this last Monday. We took our normal precautions with frequent breaks under our awning, and drinking lots of water. Even with that, the sun felt like it was hovering 2 feet over our heads – LOL. But we pushed through and had a dirty, but great work session.

While we wait for the tender to get painted, we decided to start focused work on the Locomotive cab. We used grinders to get down to bare metal on half the cab roof, and some walls of the cab interior. Once the rust and old paint were removed, we applied a good quality, red metal primer. We hope this coat will provide a good level of protection on the metal skin until it gets some paint. Fletch did a lot of work inside the cab, while the rest of the crew worked on top of the cab. Now I have a better understanding of the phrase, “like a cat on a hot tin roof”.

We also got a look at the mahogany cab windows and doors that received a coat of primer from the restoration department’s last work session. They look great, and many thanks to Owen Hughes for his work. Finally, many thanks to Steve Pahl and Jay Slinde for all their help last Monday.

Once we identify our next work session, we will let you all know. Hope to see you there. – Jason Reiman

Installing the Throttle Rod, Part 2

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This post is a follow-up to the 2020 post Installing the Throttle Rod.

One of the next steps at SPEC Machine has been to finish the installation of the throttle rod and handle on the backhead of the boiler.  Many of the new parts were shown in the December 25, 2020 update and now they have found their final home.  The chromed end of the throttle rod has been mated to the long reach rod and is being fed through the boiler to the throttle proper.  The half-lap and bolted connection is per the C&NW drawings and replaces the threaded coupling that was found when the throttle rod was disassembled.

Throttle rod installation in progress.

The packing gland was installed to properly position the rod so the throttle handle anchor could be properly located and studded to the boiler per the C&NW drawing. 

Throttle packing gland and throttle handle anchor installed.

As another part of the 3-dimensional chess moves, the throttle handle support was mocked-up to check not only for correct placement of the handle but also proper clearance over the gauge-cocks and around the boiler stays. 

Throttle handle support mock-up to check for clearances.

The original support was an “L” shape with the short leg pointed down.  The new support has the short leg pointed up because the new boiler has a stay rod in the way of the old mounting.  Here is a look at the completed assembly with the support studded to the backhead.  The anchor does have a dog-leg in it per the C&NW drawings.  It also does connect squarely at the stud end even though the camera lens distortion makes it look differently.

Throttle support.

Last but not least is a look down the top of the boiler from the throttle handle down to the throttle itself.

View of both the throttle and throttle rod.

In the next update: Installing the hydrostatic lubricator